Google Instant Searches Before You Type. Will Save You 350 Million Hours of Time Per Year

Google’s research has found that people type slowly, but read quickly while searching i.e. we tend to scan results while typing. This very insight forms the basis of Google’s new live-searching service named as ‘Instant’ which was announced just now.

Google Instant is a significant new update to Google Search which shows search results as you type in the search terms. This live-searching service predicts what you’re about to search and hence; gives you better and more accurate results. It actually increases functionality and is more than just a flashy tech demo!

Google is pushing the very limits of our imagination and their technology to bring us search results faster than ever before.

Have a look at the video below to see how Google Instant works. It really is amazing and magical! (yes, I just used Steve Jobs’ favorite words to describe a Google product, sue me)

Google Instant is a new search enhancement that shows results as you type. We are pushing the limits of our technology and infrastructure to help you get better search results, faster. Our key technical insight was that people type slowly, but read quickly, typically taking 300 milliseconds between keystrokes, but only 30 milliseconds (a tenth of the time!) to glance at another part of the page. This means that you can scan a results page while you type.

The service is rolling out over the next few days, though it is currently only for people with a Google Account (another one of Google’s evil schemes ).

Smarter Predictions: Even when you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, predictions help guide your search. The top prediction is shown in grey text directly in the search box, so you can stop typing as soon as you see what you need.

Instant Results: Start typing and results appear right before your eyes. Until now, you had to type a full search term, hit return, and hope for the right results. Now results appear instantly as you type, helping you see where you’re headed, every step of the way.

For users who prefer the standard non-live searching, Google Instant can be turned off and if you are on a slow internet connection, Google Instant will be turned off automatically.

Bloggers and SEO experts must also keep in mind that Google Instant will not change the impact of search results, so all your search engine optimization hard work will not go to waste

You can read more Google Instant here, and can try it out yourself here.

Oh and there is one more thing…

It is also to be noted here that Microsoft’s enthusiast Long Zheng of iStartedSomething already showed the world how to do this long before “Google Instant” became a reality using Bing’s AJAX APIs to showcase Bing’s ability to live-search. You can see it in action here. It’s not the most beautiful of experiments, but it sure works well !